Preparation for the Professions Program

Rethinking the Life of the Mind for Practice:
A Research Seminar on Professional and Liberal Education

Over the course of two years, the professional and liberal education research seminar, "Rethinking the Life of the Mind for Practice" brought together 14 educators from public and private, secular and religious institutions, representing both the traditional liberal arts and science disciplines as well as professions such as law, teacher education, medicine and engineering.

The seminar, led by Lee S. Shulman, president of the Foundation, and William Sullivan, senior scholar and co-director of the Preparation for the Professions Program, inquired into the challenge of preparing students for lives of practical judgment and responsibility. The resulting publication by William Sullivan and Mathew Rosin, A New Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice, proposes an educational aim of "practical reason," focusing on the interdependence of liberal education and professional training.